He was about 750 miles away, at Twitter's Manhattan
headquarters in the Chelsea neighborhood, cracking jokes
about other presidential candidates and fielding questions from
supporters.

Begrudgingly or not, after failing to make the cut for the
main-stage Republican presidential debate and declining an
invitation to participate in an earlier, lower-tier debate, Paul
decided on what he thought was the best possible alternative: Get
in front of as many of his 750,000 followers as possible, and see
if anything happened.

"Before social media, people would just go away, crawl in a
corner, and then they're done, because the media destroyed them,"
Paul told Business Insider in an interview before the debate.
"The media can't destroy you anymore."

It wasn't clear, though, that the senator had a distinct plan in
mind going in.

Shortly before the livestream began, Paul remarked that if he
were a regular voter paying attention to the debate, he most
likely wouldn't be looking at Twitter. Sergio Gor, the Paul
campaign's communications director, attempted to parlay Paul's
skepticism, making a comparison that the senator seemed to
understand.

"You know how you talk about throwing your remote at the TV?
That's kind of what this is," Gor said.

Paul poses for a picture
while the Fox Business debate plays in the
background.Rand
Paul

Eventually, Paul's debate-night livestream certainly put the
senator in a more comfortable environment than the traditional
debate stage,
where critics say he has often underperformed and
underwhelmed in a crowded group.

While other presidential candidates faced direct, probing
questions, Paul calmly fielded curated tweets that mostly allowed
him to stick to his comfortable campaign talking points: curbing
the National Security Agency's surveillance powers, reducing the
federal deficit by cutting entitlement and military spending, and
auditing the Federal Reserve.

And while other presidential candidates hurled attacks at one
another, the senator used the vacuum of opponents to throw elbows
at pretty much all of his rivals in rapid succession.

Paul was later informed that one of his supporters who tweeted at
the campaign was Canadian. Paul took a shot at Cruz, whose Canadian birth has been the source of
campaign-trail controversy for the past two weeks.

"The first time we've had one of your countrymen run for
president," Paul quipped.

Finally, Paul went after Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey (R),
whom he called the "bully from New Jersey." Paul knocked Christie
for his vow to enforce federal marijuana laws even
where it is legal under state law.

Paul and several staff
members and supporters during a break at
Twitter.Maxwell Tani/Business
Insider

Despite zingers, Paul did not appear all that interested in
either of Thursday night's debates.

The senator acknowledged that he was exercising while the
lower-tier debate aired. The screens at Twitter's headquarters
were tuned into Fox Business during the prime-time debate. But
Paul had his back turned from the screens for most of the debate.

Paul, in fact, repeatedly emphasized Thursday night that he was
actually enjoying being absent from the debate.

"So far, I like this better than the formal debate, I think,"
Paul said.

And as the night progressed, Twitter statistics started to roll
in showing Paul picking up more new followers than many of the
candidates who were on the debate stage. He was trending as a
topic on Twitter, and he appeared upbeat.

"Maybe we should just tell them in advance we won't show up for
any more of their stupid debates," Paul said, referring to the
Republican National Committee and the television networks hosting
the debates.

"He added: They're beating us down with the news coverage,
they're keeping us off the stage, but they can't keep us off the
internet."